History

Nothing is known of the life of Erik Razar before he
became a small-time gangster in Keystone City. In the early 1940's, Razar
ran a small mob that was taken over by a larger operation run by gangster
Topper Hull. Hull framed Razar and had sent him to prison. For years Razar
fumed and swore revenge. In the summer of 1947, Razar had hatched a plan
to escape by sabotaging the prison power generator. His plan had an unforeseen
side-effect however, charging Razar with enormous amounts of electricity.
Unhurt, Razar slowly changed into a gorilla and made his way across the
prison yard where he was sighted by guards. When they opened fire, Razar
changed into a giant tortoise, bouncing the bullets off it's thick shell.
When the bullets ceased, Razar became a rhinoceros and battered down the
gate. Fleeing into the woods, Razar became a bird and set out in pursuit
of Hull.

Perched on Hull's window sill, Razar learned that
Hull had planned a bank job by intercepting an armored car delivery. Razar
decided to torture Hull by thwarting his crimes and intercepted the car
first. By this point, the police had consulted with scientist Jay Garrick
who was among those who witnessed Razar, as a large bull elephant, intercept
and dismantle the armor car. Quickly changing to the Flash, Garrick engaged
the shape-shifting criminal but was quickly dispatched into a large water
reservoir.

Razar, now named The Changeling by the local papers,
decided to foil Hull's hijack of a sunken ship recovery operation and then
kill him. The Flash also became aware of Hull's plans by eavesdropping
in his invisible super-speeding from and determined to intercept them both.
Razar dove into the water as Hull's boat left the pier and transformed
himself into a large shark. The Flash dived in behind the Changeling but
the criminal irritated a large clam which seized the Flash's leg and threatened
to drown him. After extricating himself, he came upon the Changeling-shark
threatening the divers in the recovery operation and assaulted him. Deciding
that he would need to kill the villain to stop him, the Flash battered
the shark's gills until it could not breath and then knocked it unconscious
as the Changeling tried to change forms. As the unconscious and unmoving
shark drifted to the bottom, the Flash left to capture Hull. (Flash
Comics #84) Whether the Changeling survived or not as never been determined.

Power and Abilities: The Changeling possessed the ability to
change forms into any animal. Whether this was limited to animals which
he had seen or could include extinct or imaginary animals remains unknown.
Despite the animal forms, Razar retained mental control of the form and
thus the animal possessed the criminal cunning of the human mind.

Weaknesses and Limitations: Razar, as an anima, also developed
the animal limitations. For example, as a shark, it breathed through a
shark's gills and thus was vulnerable as a shark would be. Time limits
or restrictions on the frequency of changes in the Changeling's powers
have never been recorded.